Giddy excitement and wide-eyed, "Pinch me, I'm dreaming!" incredulity were the order of the night at Jimmy Buffett's Thursday concert at the Belly Up in Solana Beach.

"I can't believe he's playing here!" one woman said, a short while before Buffett and his 11-piece Coral Reefer Band took the stage. "It's amazing," agreed another fan. A few feet away, La Costa resident Anna Crisler captured the mood with a six-word description that could have served as a slogan for most people at the concert: "Oh my god! This is awesome."

There was more than ample reason for those sentiments at Buffett's two-hour, 23-song Belly Up show.

Since the late 1990s, nearly all of his performances here have taken place at the 19,442-capacity Sleep Train Amphitheatre (the Chula Vista venue formerly known as both Coors Amphitheatre and Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre). The reason Buffett played in early 2012 at SDSU's Viejas Arena, which has a capacity of around 14,000, is because Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre (as it was then still known) hadn't started its season yet.

That he usually fills that South Bay venue -- and similarly sized amphitheaters across the nation -- is a testament to the enduring appeal of Buffett's easy-going, sing-along beach ballads and gently rocking odes to various hedonistic pursuits. Equally pivotal is the party-hearty vibe that permeates his shows, which are often fueled by an array of tropical drinks and by the thousands of festive fans (the Parrotheads) attired in Aloha shirts, grass skirts, tank tops, flip flops and all manner of colorful hats, which can range from Tiki lounge-styled lamp shades to cheeseburgers and shark fins (simulated, not real).

The Belly Up show, as Buffet acknowledged to the euphoric audience, served as a warm-up gig for his Saturday concert at Las Vegas' 16,800-capacity MGM Grand Garden Arena. It also enabled him to spend time hanging out in San Diego, where he spent the past several days visiting various North County locales, including Cardiff, where he enjoyed paddle surfing. (Today, Buffett and some of his band members planned to golf at Torrey Pines.)

It's unclear, even to the Belly Up's staff, if Buffett ever officially headlined at the club before, or even was billed to appear there in any capacity. But he did sit in a number of times there with Billy & The Beaters in the early 1980s, according to Belly Up booking honcho Chris Goldmith, in addition to popping up unannounced to sing at such North County nightspots as the Triton (now the Beach House) and the Albatross.

"It's great to be here. We have history here, don't we?" Buffett said early in the evening. Near the end of his concert, he noted: "I've come back to where I started. I came here many years ago. These beach towns defied progress."